Vehicles, particularly trucks, are used for providing supplies to aircrafts. For example, a catering truck would be used which would drive to a location adjacent to an aircraft. Meals or other supplies would be removed from the truck and carried into the aircraft.
It would be desirable if such a vehicle could include a cover system to shelter a worker as the worker moves back and forth to and from the vehicle and aircraft. It would also be desirable if a cover system could be provided to protect the inside of the plane, particularly in the area of the aircraft door or hatch so that when the door is opened the interior of the aircraft near the door including seats would be protected. It would also be desirable if a cover system could be provided to maintain the temperature conditions within an aircraft when the aircraft door or hatch is open to minimize the escape of heat or air conditioned cold air from the aircraft.
An object of this invention is to provide a sheltered aircraft vehicle which includes a cover system to fulfill the above desires.
A further object of this invention is to provide such a vehicle wherein the cover system could be easily moved to and from its retracted and extended covering conditions.
In accordance with this invention, a conventional vehicle, such as a catering truck is provided with a cover system. The vehicle would have a body mounted in back of a cab. The body would be elevatable to a height generally in line with the location of the aircraft door or hatch. When the vehicle is traveling, the body would be in its normal lowered condition. An entrance station is provided over the cab forwardly of the body to provide a walkway between the vehicle body and the aircraft door. The entrance station could be provided with generally permanent side walls that extend to the height of the body when the body is in its lowered condition. Upon elevating the body a cover system would be employed to complete the sheltering of the entrance station. (Alternatively, the roof section could be permanently mounted over the cab.) The cover system preferably includes a roof section and depending wings which are mounted against each other in the retracted condition of the cover system. When the vehicle body is elevated the cover system would be pulled forwardly so as to be disposed over the cab and entrance station. The wings would then extend downwardly toward the entrance station side walls to create the shelter or tunnel effect.
In a preferred practice of the invention one of the side walls includes a gate that is openable so that the entrance station could be entered externally of the truck in the area of the cab such as by means of a ladder leading to the gate.